Up North: New Fall League ‘Kicks’ Off At Wade Stadium

A new fall league has kicked off at Wade Stadium. For the next five weeks, teams will compete in a kickball league on Wednesday nights.

League Director Aaron Shepanik was inspired to start an adult kickball league in Duluth after seeing it done elsewhere.

“Duluth’s a great city, and there’s enough people to support it,” Shepanik explained. “So why not have a kickball league here. It’s less competitive than softball and baseball, and so more people can participate, but it’s still a way to get involved and be part of a team and be social.”

In addition to running the league, Shepanik is also the umpire. He hopes to be able to have someone else be the umpire in the future so that he can play. For now, Shepanik is focused on creating an enjoyable league for others.

“For now, it’s about meeting new people, and seeing people get to enjoy the game of kickball that they probably never thought about since they were in grade school, and seeing how fun it can be as an adult,” said Shepanik.

“It’s a sport that most of us haven’t played since we were kids, and it’s a lot of fun,” said participant Brett Blackwell. “So I think there’s a lot of interest, quite a few teams. Seems like a lot of people just want to have fun.”

There were so many people interested in this league that Shepanik had to adjust the planning and number of teams.

“We have fourteen teams signed up, which is really exciting,” said Shepanik. “We originally only made space for eight because we weren’t sure what the demand was, and you need about ten to twelve people on a team. And so that filled up real quick. We got to fourteen, so we’re looking at a couple of hundred people, it’s great.”